Too Late to Innovate?
Remote work is here to stay, so what does that mean for innovation?
Three questions Weisbeck Consulting encourages you to ask yourself and your employees:
First, it really depends on your definition of innovation. Is it a “completely” new idea or a “completely” new way of doing something? Or is it a “slight” modification to some product, service, or process?
Both would qualify as “innovation.” The first type is less common. “Completely” new ideas/processes are quite rare, if not improbable. What idea, process, or change doesn’t have some reference point? No idea or process is dreamed up out of thin air…but often is created to solve some real or perceived issue. Or to provide some real or perceived value to a particular demographic.
So, innovation is a “slight” modification to some existing product, service, or process that solves (or adds value) to some real or perceived issue (for a particular demographic).
With this definition in mind…the second question becomes: what is necessary for innovation to occur? What factors must be present for innovation to take place?
Attitude: An openness and, ideally, a desire for improvement. Humility to seek out the best way of doing something, not necessarily your way.
Prioritization: Emphasizing the importance of innovation and setting aside time for the “possibility” of innovation. You can’t force innovation, but if you don’t have time for it, or if it is not important to you and your company – I can almost guarantee it won’t happen!
Collaboration: Meaningful joint work on shared projects amongst various employees and often various departments. This collaboration is a great opportunity for innovation to arise – bringing together various perspectives and ways of doing things. Quality, innovative collaboration is strongly dependent on employees bringing the right attitude and prioritization to the project.
Now, the third and final question Weisbeck Consulting encourages you to ask yourself and your employees: is it necessary for employees to be in-person, in the office, for these three factors of innovation to occur? Or can these three factors exist with remote employees?
It all comes down to leadership. How will you, as the leader, encourage innovation? Will you model a humble attitude – valuing everyone’s opinion and encouraging the best way, not simply your way? Will you prioritize innovation – encouraging employees to take time for the possibility of innovation, allowing them to focus not so much on simply crossing the next task/project off the list, but instead insightfully analyzing their work and collaborating on it with others? Will you encourage collaboration, even when it means more “dead” time (time that is not billable and not necessarily tied to a particular project, but instead spend going down a possible innovative path…pursuing good ideas and seeing if they have merit)?
If YOU model innovation as a leader, your people can’t help but feel encouraged to pursue innovation. Your actions speak much louder than your words. Be innovative, show others how to be innovative…don’t simply talk about it.
Can remote workers be innovative? Absolutely. But they must have the right type of attitude, prioritization, and collaboration. The challenge to remote work isn’t that people don’t own their time…its’s that they feel too much ownership and therefore are less likely to “waste” it on dead time at work. They want to knock out tasks and projects efficiently and then get back to their personal lives. That efficiency is wonderful for the productivity of an organization but can be detrimental to innovation. So, if you want innovative remote employees, you need to model and clearly articulate your expectations.
